Two months out and ate a huge steak

For lunch today I was starving and ordered a 7 oz steak with salad thinking that I would eat half, then have the rest for leftovers.  Didn't happen.   I had the entire 7 oz.  And a few pieces of lettuce. That was 2 hours ago, and I could easily eat again.  

I'm surprised that the dense protein didn't fill me up longer and that I was able to comfortably eat the entire steak.

At two months out it is not unrealistic that your stomach is still healing and that your nerves are still getting back to normal.  Hopefully you didn't do any damage.  

Stop it. Stop it now. Have a measured portion in front of you, and nothing more. This will quickly get away from you if you don't reign it in now.

What in the world are you thinking?!  You are not starving.  You're brain needs time to catch up with what happened to your insides.  Follow your plan.  Weigh and measure your food.  Track everything.  You've been given a second chance and this is an abuse of the opportunity you've been given.

Hi Kerig,

Sounds like you slipped up and have forgotten the rules of eating post op. Hopefully no damage has been done, but a reminder to go back to the key rule for eating, small bites chewed 30 times and stopping at 15 mins to allow your mind / body to reconnect.

Slow it down and take time to savour your food. Best wishes

Steak after surgery has to be very well-chewed.  It should take you at least 30 minutes to eat 7 ounces of steak - probably longer.  Let me tell you it's easy to overeat right after surgery.  Just because you feel like you can does not mean it's a good idea.  Even a year out you can likely damage the sleeve overeating.  I am very lucky that I haven't with my binge eating disorder.  It requires constant vigilance and awareness.  Even 15 months out for me, I must always be wary.  I have zero restriction until it's too late and I become very sick.  After one mess up I took it seriously and measure, seriously, everything that goes in my mouth.  I never eat more than a cup by volume total, which is usually 4 ounces of meat by weight, if that makes sense.  Even if I feel I have "room" the fork goes away immediately when I finish and I (sometimes literally) walk away and ignore the food.  Even if I think I'm hungry.  If you are hungry after two hours it's best to divide your meals and just eat two hours later 1/2 of what you had then.  

Let me tell you it's easy to overeat right after surgery.  Just because you feel like you can does not mean it's a good idea.  Even a year out you can likely damage the sleeve overeating.  I am very lucky that I haven't with my binge eating disorder.  It requires constant vigilance though.  I have to measure everything and not eyeball anything.  When I have a salad like that I immediately half the portions and box it so I avoid this.

Right now I could easily eat 2-3 cups of food.  The problem is with the sleeve, unlike the bypass, we have a pyloric valve.  Anything extra you eat, if it doesn't stretch or damage the sleeve, will sit in your esophagus.  You actually can stretch your esophagus, and there are cases where this was what happened, especially with the lap band, but I've seen it happen to a few VSG and RNY patients, too.

Also, we as bariatric patients can't, and shouldn't, ever rely on fullness.  We have several kinds of biological hunger: neurological, endocrine, physical, and psychological.  When we eat until we are "full," it alters these mechanisms.  If we overeat, we become used to overeating to feel "full" and this causes many issues.  We then begin to not feel full until we overeat as our baseline.  This is what happened to many of us as morbidly obese pre-op.  

I'll use myself as an example.  I'm looking at eating 4 small meals from 12p to 9p now, and it's... psychologically hard.  I am hungry, except I'm really "hungry" and drinking water mysteriously resolves this dire need to eat.  Or ignoring it, too.  

I LOVE YOUR POST, MAKES GREAT SENSE. FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO EAT SMALLER PORTIONS TO TRY TO PREPARE FOR SURGERY. SOMETIMES I ACCOMPLI**** AND SOMETIMES I DONT. WHAT HAS WORKED FOR ME WHEN I EAT OUT IS WHEN I ORDER MY FOOD I EITHER SHARE THE PLATE WITH MY KID OR FROM THE GET GO I TELL THE WAITER TO HALF THE PLATE AND PUT THE REST IN A TO GO PLATE, THIS WAY THERE IS NO TEMPTATION. 

WHEN YOU SAY 4 SMALL MEALS WHAT DO THEY CONSIST OF AND HOW MUCH IS IN EACH MEAL? 

It's much harder to eat smaller portions pre-op.  Post op even with binge eating disorder it's like night and day easier. 

I try to get at least 20g of protein each meal.  I also typically don't eat vegetables, as I prioritize protein and fat. Here's basically what I eat:

1. Protein shake
2. 2 eggs + 2 pieces bacon
3. 4oz chicken
4. 4oz beef
5. 4oz pork
6. 3-4oz tuna
7. 2-3 oz turkey w/1oz cheese
8. 1/4 of a very small sweet potato w/2 ounces turkey chilli
9. 4-6 ounces yogurt (depending on type
10. 3/4 - 1 c. crack slaw
11. 1 slice low carb bread plus 2-3 ounces of protein (I had to introduce wheat for my endoscopy the 25th because they are ruling out Celiac as the cause for my intestinal pain)

So you basically make 4 meals out of any of the stuff on the list?  I have another question. before the surgery we have to do a liquid diet . that is made up of the protein shakes? Ive read people also drink " clear broth", what exactly is that? 

Clear broth is just that - plain chicken broth usually with nothing in it.  The liquid diet depends.  Mine was not a clear liquid diet so I had sugar free popsicles, clear broth, protein shakes.  Some doctors do clear liquids only (jello, broth) while others do 1/2 liquid 1/2 food, and some don't even do a special diet except the day before.  It depends on your surgeon.